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US warns Russia over Crimea incursion

In his request for the use of force, Putin said Russia also had to protect servicemen of the Black Sea Fleet that is based in Crimea’s port town of Sevastopol “fully in line with an international accord”.

The Federation Council unanimously approved Putin’s request after a lightning fast debate.

The size of the force was not immediately clear.

Putin had issued only one brief statement since Ukraine’s parliament on February 22 ousted president Viktor Yanukovych who has since fled to Russia after a week of carnage in Kiev that claimed nearly 100 lives.

In his call with Obama, Putin said Russia had the right to “protect its interests” in Ukraine, as he warned of a “real threat weighing on the lives and the health of Russian citizens” in the country, a Kremlin statement said.

Russia’s step towards its first war since a five-day conflict with neighbouring Georgia in 2008 sparked an immediate international outcry.

At the United Nations, the United States demanded an immediate end to Russian intervention in Ukraine as Kiev urged the Security Council to stop the crisis.

During emergency talks of the 15-member council, US envoy Samantha Power called for monitors from the UN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to be deployed to Ukraine and backed a separate international mediation mission to Crimea.

“It is time for the Russian intervention in Ukraine to end. The Russian military must stand down,” she said.

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In a call with Putin, a “gravely concerned” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged him to quickly organise direct talks with authorities in Kiev.

“Cool heads must prevail,” the UN chief added.

The vast country’s bloodiest crisis since its 1991 independence erupted with Yanukovych’s decision in November to reject a deal that would have opened Ukraine’s door to eventual EU membership in favour of tighter ties with old master Moscow.

Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov told the nation he had put the armed forces on alert and ordered extra security around airports and nuclear power plants.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Igor Tenyukh had earlier said that Russia had already sent 30 armoured personnel carriers and 6,000 additional troops into Crimea to help pro-Kremlin militia gain broader independence from the new pro-EU leaders in Kiev.

Several dozen people were hurt in the eastern city of Kharkiv when a few hundred people broke away from a pro-Russian crowd of 20,000 and attempted to storm the regional administration centre.

More than 10,000 people carrying Russian flags also protested against Kiev’s new rulers in the ousted leader’s eastern stronghold of Donetsk.

A top Moscow senator said 143,000 Ukrainians had fled to Russia since the crisis first broke out.

In Obama’s separate talks with French President Francois Hollande and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the leaders pledged to work together on an aid package to the hard-hit country.

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